63 Pulled Alive From China Quake Debris After 5 Days

Five days after a huge earthquake hit south-western China, rescuers pulled at least 63 people alive from collapsed buildings yesterday, state media said, revising its earlier toll of seven.

Xinhua news agency said 57 survivors were rescued in Yingxiu township in Wenchuan County, the epicentre of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Sichuan province on Monday afternoon.

Another six people were saved alive also about 120 hours after the devastating quake in other areas, including Beichuan county, Shifang city and Dujiangyan city, the report said.

In Dujiangyan, a 61-year-old woman was saved last night by Russian rescuers after being buried for up to 127 hours in rubble, Xinhua said, in what it earlier said was the first rescue by a foreign team.

“Her hands and feet can still move, and she can still speak,” Li Wenxin, a counsellor from the Foreign Ministry who accompanied the Russian rescuers, was quoted as saying.

Also in Dujiangyan, Zhang Xiaoping, 46, was pulled from a collapsed residential building about 11.06pm local time, after being buried for almost 129 hours in the rubble, Xinhua said.

But he was immediately sent to hospital to have his legs amputated.

The rescues on Saturday defied the warnings of experts that chances of survival were extremely small after 72 hours.

The government estimates Monday’s tremor killed more than 50,000 people and has left nearly five million people homeless.

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